Thursday, December 31, 2009

It's the first new year's eve to see a blue moon since 1990 -if you believe in such a thing. There is some discussion about how exactly to define the occurrence of a "blue moon" and various schools of thought have formed.

The numerological school attributes two full moons in a single month to qualify as "blue", but if you listen to farmers, it is either a 13th full moon at the end of the year or the 3rd moon in any particular season.

As those who work the land have been known to do, their ideas are borrowed from ancient practice. The appearances of full moons set the date of important religious observances, such as Easter, and designating any extra moons as blue kept ecclesiastical calendars on track.

Turning to the cooler heads of science, we find a literalist interpretation. In order for a blue moon to occur, the atmosphere must contain particles that are bigger than usual. These chunky bits floating in the air scatter red light and give the moon a bluish tint. The last time such conditions existed was in 1883 when Krakatoa erupted, so unless Dick Cheney's latest outburst counts, there probably isn't enough polluted spew in the air this year to alter Luna's color.

Happy new year -whether your moon is blue, green, paisley or plaid, may it be a blessed event for you and yours.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Here they are, folks who made a good year even better (according to me, anyhow) by providing laughter, insight, and appreciation of the finer things in life, listed in no particular order but on display so that you can check out the outstanding blogs of 2009:

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Monday, December 21, 2009

James Cameron's Avatar is a long movie about a soldier at the end of his rope who falls in love with an oppressed tribe and fights to protect them from his own war-like, culturally-insensitive peoples. Does this sound like another overlong blockbuster? I might have been the only person in the theater wondering if there would be a Kevin Costner cameo, because this film is very similar to his Dances with Wolves, another tale of a soldier who goes native.

That said, if you go to Avatar for the story, you are going for entirely the wrong reason. This is a visual film. The narrative structure exists in service to lush, black-light jungles, incredible flying beasties and floating mountains straight off a Roger Dean album cover. James Cameron waited ten years for the right technology to showcase his ideas -and it shows.

My biggest gripe is length. The sustain of one visual bonanza after another gets to be too much of a good thing. Running nearly three hours in length, having a more substantial tale to tell would have helped, like, say, Dance with Wolves. Emotional investment is missing from Avatar, pretty much from the start we all know exactly how the story will end. Not that Dances with Wolves has a twist ending, yet it told a familiar tale with unexpected poignancy in scenes and characters that exceeded our expectations.

See Avatar for the visuals. They will blow you away. The 3-D effects are top-notch, so subtle you are barely aware of them but that fully immerse you in a fantastic new world.

It also doesn't hurt to admit from the get-go that this is a film about smurfs. Sure, the ham-handed allegory of Iraq makes it seem that our heroes are ripped straight off the headlines -the military in Avatar has a mission, and I quote, of shock and awe, and is determined to fight "terror with terror" (lazy writing or self-loathing?) -the noble tribe are in truth magical beings of love and togetherness, and the "jarhead clan" is run by none other than Gargamel in camo gear, intent on nothing more complicated than smash-kill-explode-rinse-repeat. Dances with Smurfs is a freebie for Seth McFarlane or whoever*; it is also the level of seriousness that should be brought to Avatar. See it for the eye candy, not the brain candy.

*I've been informed that Dances with Smurfs originates from a South Park episode. Who knew?

Friday, December 18, 2009

It's the last Friday of the Naughties, as our Briton friends like to say. This was a good end to the decade and '09 was a huge improvement over the previous year: I have no real gripes here at the end, especially seeing that 2010 is set to be an even better year.

Many thanks to readers who offered advice how I should proceed in selling my manuscript!

My old friend, Mr Woolcott, made the wry suggestion that I approach potential agents with a firearm -as leverage, naturally. I may resort to this should the year not go as planned.

Glynis advised me to establish a blog for my novel, which was echoed by Jen. The ladies, I have to admit, got me all fired up to take this approach.

Keep an eye out next month for a new blog. I'm devising one that will start out as platform for my shorter works of fiction, of which there are plenty, with the idea that it could be open to contributions from other writers. What do you think, sound nuts?

I had the totally random urge to see an image of Jack Skellington looking cheerful in his Santa disguise, and why would I keep something like that to myself?

To be honest, this isn't my favorite time of year. While I do like the season, and hearing bells echo through downtown is pleasurable -I don't even mind carolers, because when else do folks with (sometimes) decent singing voices get to gather in public and be so freaking joyful in song? -but celebrating the harvest is where my heart truly comes alive. That magical transition from Aestival is the peak of the year, until the ground solidifies and skies weep. Yuletide arrives just at the cusp of the dark months, and though I'm not prone to being other than my ordinary mopey self, neither am I prone to giddiness when lavished with gifts from family and friends. I feel guilty receiving presents. There, I said it. Receiving presents is inevitably accompanied by feelings of guilt. Why this is I leave to the head shrinkers, but the effect is a curtailment of joy in what others truly enjoy and take pleasure from, both the receiving and giving of gifts.

Perhaps this is why the image of Jack resonates with me. I laugh along with my loved ones, but feel in doing so that I'm a skeleton in disguise.

Friday, December 11, 2009

With this manuscript of mine and a vow to sell it next year come hell or high tide, I wonder what are the best ways to pursue this goal. I've been told to definitely post chapters online and to definitely not post them online; some say get an agent first, but others advise going straight to the publishers and getting an agent only after the manuscript is sold. With this month set aside for strategies just how I'm going to get this sucker bought, I'm asking anyone reading this to offer any tips that might have worked for you or an author you know. Anything is helpful, I'm an ignorant cuss when it comes to stuff like this.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

This ad for Caprica provokes a mixed reaction. Nice use of Christian imagery, but an apparently unclothed teenager seems like a blatant invitation to controversy. Does anyone remember the blowup over Miley Cyrus' photo in Vanity Fair earlier this year? That controversy was stoked by teens and irate mothers who took issue with her bare back and shoulder. We get the same in this ad. Caprica isn't aimed at a teenage audience, but that makes this image more not less disturbing: is it acceptable to lure adult audiences with this kind of cheesecake? I'm not a prude by any measure; nevertheless, I wonder if they couldn't have gone with something else to promote the show.

Maybe I am a prude. This is the tamer version of the wider release ad, which shows the lead actress' full torso. I debated even including this one, but thought the better of it knowing that she is not actually a teenager, she only plays one on cable tv.

But let's get to the real reason I'm posting, to share my excitement about Caprica! You can read about the upcoming season at Airlock Alpha to get details. The two-hour pilot released on dvd earlier this year was excellent and laid the groundwork for what could be a fantastic series. Any fan of Battlestar Galactica would be remiss to not check this out. By the same token, it's clearly aiming for a general audience, not just scifi fanatics like me. For the uninitiated, allow me to recommend the Wikipedia entry for all you need to know before checking out the series premiere on January 22nd.

What do you listen to while writing? Possibly you prefer silence, or working in a coffeehouse where the ambience sharpens your mind, or the airy environment of the library, where infrequent whispers and shufflings only linger at the fringes of audibility. I'd love to hear what other writers like, it's always fascinating what enables the writing mind to operate at its best.

As I mentioned in a prior post, I'm a musics man when it comes to the audiodrome. Here's a few selections that best accompany my writing sessions:

Sunday, December 06, 2009

I've been gifted with a netbook bonanza! Not only can I unequivocally count myself a member of the twenty-first century, this week I'll be diving into the manuscript with gusto. This is the publishing tool I've been waiting for, yeehaw!

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

I've been needed lately in 15th century Italy. The Templar conspiracy has heated up and my fellow Assassin guildsfolk are racing to retrieve pieces of the Apple of Eden before they are snatched up by our ancient foes. If this was everything on my plate, I'd have loads of free time, but there is my Monteriggioni villa to consider: it requires upkeep and new paintings to adorn its walls, not to mention my mother is weeping in an upstairs room until I'm able to collect enough feathers to solve the mystery of our family's execution -it was the Templars, we know that much. However, there's been a recent breakthrough that makes me hopeful. Though I've been travelling a lot, bouncing between Florence and Venice, it hasn't kept me away from my good friend Leonardo Da Vinci. In fact, I'm on my way to see him today. He's finished decoding some old codex pages I found hidden in Tuscany and wants to share his findings. There's some kind of flying machine he keeps talking about, but there's no way he'd ever let me use it...